Sunday, February 8, 2009

Full Circle Time

People have been wondering when I'll return to opinionitis blogging. I refer them back to my very first blog post (April 15, 2007) in which I posed the question, "What moment are you in?"

Fact is, blogging has started feeling a bit like videotaping my kids' soccer games. By committing to recording them for posterity, I inadvertently sacrificed my ability to be in the moment.

I love blogging and the immediate connection it provides from one heart and psyche to another. But for now, for my own mental health, in honor of what Thich Nat Hanh calls "Present Moment Living," I'm on a break.

I'm working my way up to quitting Facebook as well, for the same reason. It's taking up a lot of psychic and emotional space that I once reserved for the present, tactile, real-time moment.

So here's that first post. See you again soon, probably.

April 15, 2007I was on an elevator at work yesterday with someone who was talking full volume on her Razor phone. She exited on the floor a couple below mine, and I rolled my eyes and confessed to the other passenger, "I just can't get used to that. I guess I'm just old."

The young woman looked blankly back at me, then removed her ear buds and said, "Have a nice day," as she scooted out. Of the three women in that elevator, I was the only one actually in that elevator.

Beyond the breach of manners, which is considerable (what makes you think I want to hear one side of your conversation with your husband who, apparently has just dropped you off five minutes ago?) elevator cellphones offend me.

Suddenly our real lives aren't enough for us. We need to check in with three voicemails, three email accounts, our news groups, and our bookmarked web news pages to equip ourselves for the day. These overloading distractions, by definition, remove us from the real time lives we're trying to live.

People usually define greed as a monetary lust. But there's a new greed these days...a greed for existing in an excess of "present moments." It's an impossible irony. We all want so much to be "in the moment," but we can't decide which moment is the real one.

Okay, I'm a hypocrite. I'm starting this blog hoping people will take time out from their own real time moments to give a damn what I'm thinking.

So do me a favor and get your eyes away from a screen and your ears away from a speaker for a moment. Find yourself some old-school, flesh-on-flesh, eye-contact-generating, outdoor, fresh air reality.